Americans, these are things we are NOT saying in 2024:
"Voting blue won't solve anything." Yes it will: if enough of us do it, it will solve a problem called Trump's second term in the White House. We unfortunately live in a two-party system. If you refuse to vote, you're effectively voting for Trump. I shouldn't need to explain this to people, yet here we are.
"It doesn't matter who's president. Both candidates are the same anyway." No, they are REALLY not. Biden was never my first choice, and his shipments of arms to Israel are despicable, but don't try to tell me even for a second that a second Trump term would be the same for the world as a second Biden term.
"But voting blue won't fix [fundamental underlying problem in America]." Voting for Democrats cannot fix every issue, this is true. But by saying this and ONLY this you are discouraging people from voting by making them feel hopeless. Voting is one of many tools in our arsenal, not the only tool, but an important one, and it does matter.
"You shouldn't vote blue, you should do [other thing] instead." See above: you can vote and protest and organize at the same time. It's not either/or. You can do it all. Stop discouraging voters from exercising their rights under the guise of leftism.
"Voting is just legitimizing government power. It makes you part of the system." Literally just shut up. Women and people of color didn't fight for their voting rights to have you say things like this. If you live in America and you can legally vote, then you should fucking vote, and vote blue. There is no neutral option.
"Voting blue just makes you complicit in [this bad policy]." Inaction, and allowing Trump to have a second term, is worse for the entire world than any Democrat policy. Yes, even that one. Voting is not about finding a perfect unproblematic candidate. It is about choosing the lesser of two evils.
"Voting doesn't work because—" STOP IT. STOP DISCOURAGING PEOPLE FROM VOTING.
You know who wants you NOT to vote? Trump supporters, that's who. You should be suspicious of ANYONE who is suggesting that your vote doesn't matter, or that both candidates are the same, or that Biden's policy on XYZ means you shouldn't vote for him. Trump supporters aren't trying to get your vote by saying, "Vote for Trump!" They're trying to get your vote by DISCOURAGING YOU FROM VOTING AT ALL.
I don't like Biden either, but Trump is unequivocally worse. Voting doesn't fix everything, but it is the minimum fucking requirement of living in a democracy. Voting for president has real, tangible, immediate impacts on people's lives, and choosing not to vote is not the rebellion you think it is, it is just relinquishing your voice. So fucking vote. THIS IS A GROUP PROJECT AND DAMN IT WE ARE NOT FAILING BECAUSE OF YOU.
Reblogging this again in honor of the dipshit in my notes crying and screaming about things I did not say. “Why do you like Biden why are you saying he’s good” I don’t. Says it right there in the post. “But voting won’t fix everything” I know. Says it right there in the post. “Voting is the bare minimum” Amazing! Says that in the post too. “Why aren’t you telling people to do things beside vote” I literally did. Read the fucking post.
If you don't like Biden's support for Israel, you should know that it is nothing compared to Trump's support for Israel, and the Republican Party in general. And they are using American influence in entirely different ways.
Biden: "Israel is our ally, and we support our allies. However, let's talk behind the scenes and use our material support to put pressure on them to stop their part of the violence and come to a viable peace agreement."
Trump: "Fuck yeah, genocide is awesome! Let's kill all the brown people! Let's kill all the Muslims! I'm going to give you everything you could ever want with no strings!" Trump is supported by Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians, who believe in the Rapture, which is a completely whacked interpretation of Revelation in which, for Jesus to come back, Israel has to be destroyed and all Jews killed, except that God will kill all the people who destroy Israel. Therefore, Rapture believers want someone else (preferably Muslims) to destroy Israel and commit genocide against Jews, so that both Jews and Muslims will be wiped out.
Those are your two choices.
On the one hand, a guy who stands by Israel politically and militarily but is also advocating for justice and peace behind the scenes, or a guy who is 100% ride-or-die for the worst of Netanyahu's violence and backed by people who are hoping to use this to create more genocide in the future.
And if you say "well, I just won't vote," you are contributing to the victory of the guy who is vocally pro-genocide.
I think it's important to point out that Republicans are not just interested in pushing Bad Policies; they are actively pushing for the end of a system in which voting is an option at all. They are pushing the idea that our system is so broken and rigged that the only solution is for their strong authoritarian leader- whoever he may be- take complete and total control of the government, dissolve all of the "rigged" systems in his way completely, and exact his will entirely and without anything inhibiting or weighing in on that will.
it's incredibly difficult to make the sorts of changes to the system that leftists want and need right now, but there are still areas that we have sway in. utilizing the power we have now in order to expand it is how we make change, and continue to make change, that empowers the people as a whole in the long-term.
if Republicans win, we aren't just looking at Things Getting Worse; we're looking at the complete and total dissolution of any and all power we currently hold. we're looking at the strengthening of a system that can and will strip us off the ability to make any change at all.
even if your position is that we need a Great Revolution to destroy the system so we can rebuild from the ashes, you should be asking yourself: what conditions are easiest to revolt under? do we want the system we're revolting against to be any stronger and more violent than it currently is? will it actually be easier to revolt if the system is not only capable of, but openly advocating for, the outright killing of anyone who so much as hints at their distrust in it?
who suffers first: privileged people in progressive areas with liberal state governments, or marginalized people with little to no protection from an extremist, openly genocidal federal government? who will be impacted first and most severely by that sort of change?